Sugita decided to change his company’s manufacturing operations from glass bottles to sheet glass, and in 1917, began negotiations with Libbey Owens Sheet Glass Company, which had acquired the Colburn process patent rights from Toledo Glass Company. Sugita invited Yoshitaro Yamashita, manager of Sumitomo’s general headquarters, who was visiting the U.S. at the time, to join him on a tour of the Libbey Owens Glass Company’s factory in Charleston, West Virginia. Yamashita was deeply impressed with the new process and supported the building of sheet glass operations. Both felt that actively pursuing the sheet glass business would be in the nation’s best interests. Sugita then successfully conducted contract negotiations with Libbey Owens to acquire the patent rights to produce sheet glass using the Colburn process. When Sugita signed the contract, Libbey Owens had been producing glass products for only a few months, and Sugita was the only person in the world to have a license to this patent.